After netbooks, PC makers believe the next sweet spot for consumers will be low-cost ultraportables, machines that weigh less than 4 pounds, and cost less than $800. However, to get to that price point, some compromises need to be made, either in terms of performance, build, or battery life. With its N3400, Averatec has made a notebook that looks and performs above its $799 sticker price. With an all-aluminum body and a touchpad featuring built-in quick launch buttons, the N3400 certainly looks the part of a high-class system. However, its battery life was wanting.
Design
At first glance, the brushed-aluminum exterior of the Averatec N3400 invites comparisons to another ultraportable that costs almost twice as much: the MacBook Air. However, side by side, the Air is almost half as thin as the N3400, which checks in at a hair under 1 inch thick at its thickest. Otherwise, they’re almost exactly the same depth and width: 12.8 x 9.0 inches. Inside, the N3400 has a black bezel, keyboard, and keyboard deck, whose palm rests tended to pick up fingerprints. Weighing 3.8 pounds (and 4.6 pounds with its external optical drive), the N3400 is almost a pound heavier than the MSI X340, but the N3400 feels more sturdy.
While, like many of its ilk, the N3400 doesn’t have an internal optical drive, the notebook ships with an external DVD burner. Coated in a soft rubber, the external drive contrasts nicely with the N3400’s metallic skin.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The N3400’s keyboard reminds us of that on the Acer Aspire One 751h; the keys are flat on top and not tapered, and while there’s space between them, it’s not enough to be considered an island-style layout. The keys have a texture that enhanced our grip without chafing our fingers, though we wish they were slightly more responsive. Occasionally, the keyboard would fail to register a letter when we were typing quickly, and not pressing down on the keys all the way.
The touchpad on the N3400 had little friction, and is fairly spacious for a 13-inch system. Two rows of icons on the top and bottom of the pad can be used as quick-launch keys to adjust the volume, open e-mail, launch the Web browser, or perform user-defined actions.
In order to use the buttons, you first have to press the icon in the upper right-hand corner, which switches the touchpad into Dual Pad mode. While in this mode, you can’t use the touchpad as you normally would; you have to switch back to touchpad mode first. While it’s nice having the functionality of quick-launch buttons, the extra step needed to activate them minimizes their usefulness; it would be much better if there were simply a row of buttons above the keyboard instead.
The touchpad also supports multitouch gestures; by dragging two fingers across the pad, you can scroll through open windows, rotate images, and zoom in and out of pages.
